Building Healthy Minds

Probably one of the most important concerns parents have is raising their children to have healthy minds. The term "healthy mind" means many things, and in this case, I'm talking about providing children with:

• the ability to reach out to others, as well as receive love from close friends and family,
• the ability to feel empathy and compassion,
• the ability to rise up and defeat peer pressure,
• the ability to think critically and creatively, and
• the ability to find more than one solution to a problem.

As you can see, some of these are academic skills, and some are mental/emotional skills. The good news is that you as a parent have a direct influence on all of these things. Now we just need to make sure that you have the proper tools and abilities to teach these skills to your child!

Nurture Your Child

When used as a noun, the word "nurture" is defined as the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were treated as a child. This is a very important statement, because there is a possibility that you were not treated very well as a child. While some would say that it has no bearing on how you raise your own child, it has been proven time and again that it does. Some parents who were abused as a child might go in the other direction and never spank their child; but too often it is the opposite, and abused children go on to become abusive parents. Nevertheless, most adults have some baggage that they could use some help improving. We develop unhealthy habits, unhealthy thought processes, and handle our children in ways that don't benefit them in the least. We cannot raise children with healthy minds if we are not healthy ourselves.

If you have some obstacles that you feel hinder you from nurturing your child in the way that you want, I believe Mike Brescia with Think Right Now can help you. I have used his products and had amazing success. I have struggled with depression, unhealthy eating habits, low self-esteem, and procrastination. His products can help rid your thought processes of fear, anxiety, doubt, anger, and guilt: the things that interfere with your ability to build a healthy mind in your child. Kids see much more than we realize, and we are handing our baggage over to them if we don't heal ourselves and improve our own minds. This is not a new-age gimmick. As a matter of fact, I am proudly a Christian and would not recommend a product that was. But it is a psychological "repair tool" that helps you improve your thought processes without having to see a "shrink"! (And it's much cheaper, too!)

Teach Your Child

If you are as fortunate as me, you are able to teach your child at home. If your child attends school, you still have the ability to have influence on her and to improve her education by what you do at home. While this time is more limited, it is very important that you never forget that your child does not get anywhere close to what she needs at school. She gets everything she needs from YOU. Of course, I'm not referring to facts and statistics. I'm referring to the critical thinking skills she will need as she grows up and eventually has her own life, where she will need to think about five things at one time, think through problems, find different solutions, and even teach her own child to have a healthy mind. Below you will find some of my favorite tools to improve your child's ability to think. Whether you want improved creativity or improved critical thinking, these items are great at building healthy minds- and you will enjoy doing these with your child. Give them a try! Each topic below includes various grade level material. (Links coming soon!)

Critical Thinking/ Logic

Language Arts

Math

Science

Social Studies